New Ideas
by Lena7623
Summary: Starts just after "Buffy vs. Dracula" in Season 5. Riley left Buffy over the summer, and now she is starting to notice Giles in a completely different way. Obviously, she's wigged.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** "New Ideas" 1/1  
**Author:** Lena  
**Fandom:** Buffyverse

**Warnings:** Hmm…a little language. Dirty thoughts. Not too much badness going on.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Disclaimer: **Joss Whedon is God, and I'm just a lowly worshipper. None of this is mine...blah, blah, blah.  
**Summary: **After spending a lot of extra times with Giles for the first time in a while, Buffy realizes just how much her feelings for him have changed. The story starts just after Season 5, Episode 1 "Buffy VS. Dracula" but Riley left Buffy over the summer and Dawn doesn't appear out of nowhere.  
**Beta'd by: **This is running way late, so it wasn't betad. If you guys catch something, let me know and I'll change it.

To: writing for: secondalto / Katy

The request: patroling with banter, Scooby involvement (choose your

Scoobies), tea.

Unwanted: OOCness, major character death

Highest rating preferred: any

Word Count: 750

Due: March 2

Buffy was out patrolling with Giles. He hadn't accompanied her since high school but, with her asking him to be her Watcher again, he insisted that he come along, to critique her technique. Ever since Dracula had stopped by for a visit, it seemed that the supernatural activity had picked back up, so had she stayed busy almost every night this week.

"Buffy, you've already killed three vampires tonight. Don't you believe that it's time to go home?" Buffy looked over at him, thinking about how tired he looked. He probably hadn't been out this late in all of last year. It was already almost three in the morning.

"Don't get all worn out on me," she joked with him. "We've still got two more cemeteries to go, buster."

"As your Watcher, I say that it's time to go home." He stood up straight and looked straight at her for a moment. Buffy had to smile at how cute he looked when he got his 'determined' face on. She hadn't even had the chance to see it much since high school.

Whoa, where did this thought of Giles being 'cute' come from? Buffy pushed the thought aside.

"Well, if you insist. We'll just pick it up tomorrow night." She playfully elbowed him in the ribs. "What's wrong, getting tired?"

"Not all of us live on the schedule of a college student, Buffy." His voice sounded stern, but she could see the smile on his face. He wasn't fooling her with his stern act. "Some of us enjoy getting eight hours of sleep a night."

"And then some of us have lives outside of books," she retorted. "You can't stay in your apartment again all this year. You're getting out more if I have to make you do it."

"Is that a threat or a promise?" Buffy's breath caught in her throat when Giles said that to her. Was he…flirting with her? Wow, that was nowhere near as disgusting as she would have thought it would have been a year or two ago. Actually, it was kind of hot.

She shook her head a little, trying to get thoughts of hot!Giles out of her mind. Riley had only left her a month before, going off to do soldier boy stuff in South America or something. Stupid Riley would rather go off and act like a hero than be with her. That had to be affecting her mind or something.

"I'd call it a promise. I'm not letting my Watcher be a hermit." She started heading for where he had parked his new car. He had just purchased a new BMW convertible, and she couldn't help but be glad that he had finally gotten a real 'grown-up' car, instead of the giant rust-bucket that he had insisted on driving all of these years. Well, he hadn't' gotten it because of everyone's prodding, but because the car finally fell apart on the road one day, but it still counted that he had gotten the car.

Buffy had Giles drive her back to her dorm and, once again, couldn't help but notice how hot he looked while driving down the road with the top down. Okay, maybe she needed to go on a date or something. She knew that she was going to be talking to Willow about it as soon as she got up in the morning.

When they reached the dorm, she turned back to Giles and said, "Alright, so I'll see you tomorrow for training, right?"

"Yes, training at my apartment." He smiled. "We must find a better place for training. I don't think that my apartment is large enough for our training."

Buffy nodded. "I'm sure that we'll find something soon. They've got a gym on campus, but people use it all the time. Maybe we can reserve a room or something. I'll look into it." Was she babbling now? This was getting way weird.

"Yes, that would be most helpful." Giles looked at his watch. "So, shall we say, three o'clock tomorrow, or do you have a class?"

"No, I'm done by two, so three o'clock is great. Good night, Giles." She reached over and opened her door but, on impulse, turned back and kissed him on the cheek. Once she realized what she had done, she quickly hopped out of the car, a little embarrassed. Just what the hell was coming over her now?

This couldn't wait anymore. Willow would just have to be woken up. Buffy made her way over to her and Tara's room. When she got there, she knocked on the door. A very sleepy looking Willow answered the door. "Buffy? What's going on? What time is it?"

"Um…late, very late, but I wouldn't have woken you up if it wasn't really, really extra important." Buffy had a worried expression on her face, and watched as Willow's face changed as well.

"Oh, ok, we can talk. Give me just a minute. Let me get dressed." She shut the door for a second. Buffy could hear Tara wake up and ask who was at the door. Buffy could hear Willow telling Tara that Buffy was at the door and it sounded like an emergency. Well, it probably wasn't quite what Willow was thinking, but Buffy definitely thought that it was an emergency. A few minutes later, Willow came out, still looking tired but at least clothed properly now. "Okay, what's the emergency?"

"I think I have a crush on Giles."

A small smile spread across Willow's face. "So, you just noticed that?"

"Huh…what?" Now Buffy was even more confused. "No no, this just happened tonight. You see, I was out patrolling with him, and I think we were flirting and then, when he dropped me off just now, I kissed him. Yeah, it was only on the cheek, but I never would have even thought of doing it before. Do you think it's because of Riley leaving me?" Now she was babbling, and she almost never babbled.

Willow giggled a little. "And I thought that something bad had happened." She shook her head. "I don't think this is because of Riley. Why don't we go sit in the lobby and talk about it more?"

Buffy nodded, following Willow as she led her to the lobby. With it being so late, it was deserted right now, which Buffy was grateful for. She didn't want to be talking about personal issues with tons of other people roaming around, pretending to not listen. Buffy and Willow sat across from each other at a little coffee table. Buffy had sat down on the worn out blue couch, and Willow had claimed a little arm chair to herself. "Okay, Buffy, you really haven't noticed this?"

"Willow, I have no idea what you are talking about. Please explain to me." Buffy thought that Willow must have been sleep deprived or something, because she wasn't making any sense to her.

Willow took a deep breath. "The two of you have been together constantly ever since that Dracula guy came by, right?"

"Well…yeah," Buffy agreed and nodded, "but we've been training a lot. You know, the whole Slayer/Watcher bonding thing?"

"You also just go to his place to hand out, Buffy." Willow continued to look at her with a look that said 'you should know where this is heading.'

Buffy didn't, though. "Well, he lives the life of a recluse, Willow. I kind of like hanging out with him." She looked down at her feet. "I kind of neglected all of you guys last year. I'm trying to make it up to you. Besides, you and Xander hang out there all the time, too."

"Yeah, but neither of us go over there alone. We all go as a group, you know, with Tara and Anya." Willow smiled. "Buffy, I'm your best friend, right?" Buffy nodded. "Well, I notice things that you can't always see. It's been over a month since Dracula came and did his thing and you asked Giles to be your Watcher again, but you spent the whole summer over at his place. Yeah, we were there sometimes, too, but you were over there every day with no excuse of training."

Suddenly it felt like Buffy was hit with a ton of bricks at the realization. "Oh my god, you're right."

Willow smiled. "I'm always right about things like this, Buffy." She stood up. "If you'd just learn that, then we'd be all set." She reached her arms over her head and stretched. "I mean, you were over there even before Riley left for Columbia or whatever."

"I think that maybe he saw it, too," Buffy said, still in shock. "How did I not notice all of this before?"

"For being the Slayer, you're pretty oblivious about life in general."

"Willow!" Buffy laughed. "You're supposed to be my friend and pump me up, not make fun of me."

"That's what you get for waking me up at three o'clock in the morning." She stretched her arms over her head. "Well, since that's settled, I'm going back to bed to cuddle with Tara." She turned and started to head back in the direction of her room.

"Wait! What am I supposed to do about this? I mean, this is a whole new idea, thinking of Giles as hot and attractive. What do I do?"

"I suggest kiss him."

"What if he doesn't think the same way about me that I do about him?"

Willow turned back to her. "He does." Buffy was about to ask how she knew, but Willow interrupted. "Just trust me on this, he does. Remember, I know these things. Now go to bed, because you have to be up at nine for class, don't you?"

Buffy nodded, and then watched as Willow walked back to her bedroom. Buffy didn't think that she'd get that much sleep, but, as soon as she went to her single bedroom and laid down on the bed, she passed out.

She woke up in enough time to run to her first class, and her classes blew by. She was nervous about seeing Giles for training at three o'clock. On one hand, she couldn't understand how she could be nervous, because it was just Giles, but, on the other hand, it was _Giles_, and, with this whole new concept of having the hots for Giles, she didn't know if she should dress up or just act like everything is normal. She decided to just try and act normal.


	2. Chapter 2

She woke up in enough time to run to her first class, and her classes blew by. She was nervous about seeing Giles for training at three o'clock. On one hand, she couldn't understand how she could be nervous, because it was just Giles, but, on the other hand, it was _Giles_, and, with this whole new concept of having the hots for Giles, she didn't know if she should dress up or just act like everything is normal. She decided to just try and act normal.

Giles seemed to sniff out that something wasn't normal as soon as she walked through the door, however. She knew that she was acting a little strange. Well, it was either that or when she was distracted enough so that Giles managed to get one good hit against her with a quarterstaff (they were alternating weapons at the moment) and sent her flying into a bookcase.

Giles ran over to her as she stayed down on the ground for a moment. "Buffy, are you alright? I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

"It's alright," she said, lying without effort. It actually hurt like hell, but she knew that it would pass soon. Right now, though, it felt like a mule had kicked her in the stomach where Giles had hit her. "I'll be fine."

Giles helped her sit up and helped her get over to the couch. "Buffy, is everything ok today? You seem distracted. Normally, you would have dodged an attack like that."

Buffy sighed, and then winced as the breath hurt the hell out of her. "I'm doing alright. My concentration is just a little off." She looked up at him and smiled. "I think we're done for the day, though. I have to work to breath here."

"Are you sure you're ok? Would you like some tea?"

Buffy laughed. "God, you British people and tea. Sure, why not. I'll have some tea. Does it really fix everything, or do you just like to pretend that it does?"

Giles just smiled back at her. "Oh it does fix everything. Let me make you a cup and you'll find out." She watched him as he turned and walked to the kitchen, and she couldn't stop herself from looking at his ass as he walked away. Now, for the first time, she understood the phrase 'I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.' All these years of fighting on the Hellmouth had done wonders for his body. She couldn't see too much of it under the clothing that he wore, but, through his jeans, she could tell that he had a good butt. He could probably sell workout videos with that butt.

Then she looked away, mortified over exactly how much thought she had just put into Giles's ass. Willow was right, she had it and she had it _bad_.

She was still trying to recover a few minutes later when Giles walked back in with a tray that had a teapot, two cups, and more things to put in tea than she thought was possible. He set it down on the coffee table in front of her, taking a chair that was cornered next to the sofa that Buffy was still sitting on. "So, what do you like in your tea?" he asked her.

Buffy just realized that, in the four years that she had known Giles, she had never sat down and had tea with him before. She wasn't even sure if she had ever had 'proper' tea, as Giles would say. She shrugged at him. "Don't know, actually. Why don't you fix it the way you like it and we'll experiment."

She watched him as he poured tea into the two cups, and then put two cubes of sugar and some milk into both of the cups. She accepted the cup from him when he passes it to her, leaning back and taking a sip of it. She found that it tasted great. She'd had iced tea before, but never hot tea. It was like hot chocolate, but better, and she never thought that she'd be saying that _anything_ was better than chocolate. "Wow, we should definitely have tea more often if it's always this good."

Giles smiled at her. She loved the way that his green eyes crinkled when he smiled. She couldn't believe that she had never noticed that before either. She really was an oblivious person.

Soon enough she was so wrapped up in conversation with him that she could barely take the time to notice anything about his looks. She was able to talk to him in a way that she had never been able to talk to a boyfriend. Not Angel, not stupid ass-face Parker, and not Riley had been able to relax Buffy enough so that she could talk so freely. She didn't feel the need to act or be a certain way. She tried to be as mature as possible with Angel, which had totally misfired in the worse possible way. Still so hurt from Angel, she was willing to be or do anything to be with Parker, and that was a terrible mistake. Riley had wanted her to be more normal than she could ever be. She had wanted normal with him, and she had gotten hurt again. She was starting to think that Willow may have had the right idea about rejecting boys forever before the idea of Giles hit her over the head like a ton of bricks.

"Buffy?" Giles's voice brought her out of her thoughts. "Are you sure that you're feeling ok? You still seem a little distracted."

"Well, let me put it this way. I think I just figured something out." She smiled at him.

"Oh? Is it a good or a bad thing to have figured out?" Giles smiled back at her.

"I'd call it a good thing, a very good thing." She looked down at her watch. "I kind of need to run. I need to do some homework before patrolling tonight. So, are we meeting tonight at ten o'clock still?"

Giles nodded. "Yes, in the same cemetery that we started in the night before." He stood up and walked her to the door. "I shall see you tonight, then."

Before she left, Buffy stood up on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek again, but this time hung around for the extra second to check his reaction. She was pleasantly surprised that he didn't look horrified by it like she had feared he would. "See you tonight," she said, practically floating out the door afterwards.

That night, Buffy had gone through a little extra effort to get ready for patrol. Of course, she couldn't exactly go out in a skirt and heels, but a little extra make-up and curls in the hair wouldn't arouse too much suspicion, would it? She ended up picking out a silk blouse and a good pair of jeans to go out in, with a pair of black boots. She knew that all of these nice clothes would probably be covered in dirt before the end of the night, but the she figured that the thought still counted.

She met Giles out at the cemetery at the appropriate time. He smiled at her when she walked up. "You look nice tonight. Is there anything that you're celebrating?"

She smiled when he complimented her. "Well, I've got something that might be worth celebrating."

"What would that be?"

"If I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise." She started to walk through the graveyard. "I'll tell you about it later, okay?" She hoped that she would be doing some celebrating tonight, anyway, and not crying on Willow's shoulder about how Giles rejected her and how she could never face him again.

He nodded, and they started patrolling through the first of what would be six graveyards tonight. It was impossible to hit all of the twelve graveyards in one night and still get enough sleep to function the next day. What Giles had thought of was to check which ones had burials in them the day before and go to those. That usually got them going to six a night, sometimes more, and sometimes less.

That night was far busier than the night before. The night before, they had only found three vampires in five graveyards. Tonight, they found a large group of vampires in the first graveyard, preparing for something or another that looked like it could be important. Buffy wasn't really interested in the why or how, as much as how great these vampires would look as little piles of ashes under her boots.

She watched Giles in action. He had brought an axe tonight, and she could barely stop watching him swing it to lop off the head of a vampire to do her own duty. When she finally managed to turn her head away from him, she came face to face with a vampire. With a few kicks and a nicely placed piece of word to shove through his chest, he was quickly dust.

"So Giles, how are you doing over there?" Buffy asked after that vampire was dust, glancing over at him for a second before turning her attentions to the next vampire that came toward her.

She saw him aim his axe at another vampire's head, taking it off in one clean swoop. "I'm doing just fine over here, Buffy." Without missing a beat, he swung the axe again into another vampire's chest, bisecting him. "I actually have something that I need to ask you."

Buffy launched a series of punches at a vampire, sending him sprawling onto the ground. "Are you sure that this can't wait?" What could be on his mind that he needed to ask _now_? "I mean, life and death peril here."

"The problem with that scenario is watching you right now…I was wondering if I could…maybe we could get a cup of coffee after we're done here?" Even though he was sparring with another vampire who had thought to bring a sword to the battle, Buffy could see the slight blush in his face.

"Wait…are you asking me on a date?" She paused just for a second too long, taking a roundhouse kick to the chest that sent her falling to the ground. She watched as Giles dispatched the sword vampire with an axe to the head, while Buffy used her stake to throw into the remaining vampire's chest.

She stood up and brushed herself off, not even looking as the vampire turned to dust. "That's what you get for getting my shirt dirty," she snapped at the pile of ashes. "I try to look nice and they still kick me around."

"You didn't answer my question." Giles walked over and brushed some of the grass off of her back. She closed her eyes and smiled at the sensation of his hand brushing down her back gently to get the blades of grass off. "Ever since we made up with each other earlier this year, I've…I've basically dug my head out of my arse and noticed how much you've grown. You're went from the flighty teenager that stayed in the library to begrudgingly train to a responsible woman who juggles both college and slaying with seeming ease."

"I juggle this because of my fabulous Watcher, Giles." She turned to look at him. "And I'm juggling with good grades this year, I might add. I'd like to think that I've dug my head out of my 'arse' as well." She tried to mimic his accent with the last sentence, and failed miserably, which caused Giles to laugh. She then smiled coyly at him. "You don't ask a girl out on a first date for coffee, Giles. Maybe a dinner tomorrow night would be more appropriate, don't you think?"

She watched as a broad grin swept across his face. "I do believe you're right. Dinner it is."


	3. Chapter 3

**Part III:**

"And he asked you out during the middle of a battle?" Willow asked, sounding giddy even though it was about three in the morning. Giles had dropped Buffy back off at her dorm after they had went through a few more cemeteries, but Buffy could hardly concentrate on vampires and demons anymore. She had a date with Giles!!

"Yeah, he totally did. Can you believe it?" Buffy sighed and laid back onto Willow and Tara's bed. She had knocked on their door to wake the two of them up again, but they had actually been expecting it this time and were waiting up for her. Willow knew that Buffy went out patrolling with Giles nearly every night, and Buffy could only surmise that Willow was expecting Buffy to either get a date or possibly, but certainly not likely, get her heart broken. Either way, Willow was awake, and now Buffy could share her joy with her.

Tara, who had went briefly down to the kitchen in the common area, brought in three steaming mugs of tea for them to drink. She walked in through the door and set the tray down onto the bed, picking up a mug for herself and sitting down next to Willow on the bed.

"Thanks, Tara," Buffy said, grabbing a mug for herself and taking a sip. Tara had picked a raspberry flavored tea, Buffy realized with a grin. She found it to be very tasty.

"I told you, already. He's got it for you, probably as bad as you've got it for him." Willow took a sip of her tea and giggled. "I told you that I'm right about these things." She set her mug aside for a moment. "Ooh! You should get him to sing for you!"

"Yes, he sings The Who excellently," Tara added.

Buffy had heard about the adventure that had led to everyone finding Giles in the coffee shop singing his heart out with a guitar. Tara, Willow, and Anya had commented about how sexy it was, and Buffy had just brushed the thought of Giles being sexy aside at the time, although now she was kicking herself over doing that. Maybe she would have saved herself a bit of heartache with Riley if she had. He didn't cause too much, but even what he had caused had hurt like hell.

Of course, now all Buffy wanted to do was to nag him to death until he would sing for her. She didn't think that would work too well, however. Before she could think of a way to convince him to sing for her, another troubling thought had appeared in her head.

"Oh god, what am I going to wear?" she asked with real panic in her voice.

Willow giggled. "I'm sure that we'll find you something suitable to wear for a dinner date."

Luckily for Buffy, the next day was a Saturday. That meant that she could sleep in a little in the morning and not have to suffer through classes, all the while only thinking of Giles. Willow had shooed her out of the room with promises of helping her pick out an outfit last night, and Buffy woke up to the sound of gentle knocking on her door.

Buffy grumbled, but got up out of the bed and answered the door. "Wow, you slept hard," Willow said, looking Buffy up and down.

Buffy took a glance in the mirror on her dresser, seeing that her hair was sticking up and her sushi pajamas were twisted and rumpled. She grinned and nodded. "It was kind of a late night."

"When is it not a late night for you?" Willow walked past Buffy and headed straight to her closet. She opened the door to it and started to look through it. "You should probably wear something dressy but not too dressy. Do you know where he's taking you?"

Buffy shook her head. "When did you get so knowledgeable about first date attire?"

Willow looked over her shoulder at Buffy and smiled. "I think I learned it from you, actually. That or maybe it's just innate girl knowledge." She looked back at the closet. "Do you have anything that he hasn't seen you in before? You shouldn't wear something old and known to a first date."

Buffy walked up to the closet and, after shuffling through it for a few moments, pulled out a light blue strapless dress. "I just bought this the other day," Buffy said, holding it up to her body so that Willow would get an idea of how it might look on her. "Is this ok?"

"Yeah, I think that will work perfectly," Willow said, taking the dress from her and setting it on the bed. "Now, please go take a shower so that your hair isn't sticking up straight off of your head."

"It's not sticking 'straight' up," Buffy mumbled, but still grabbed her shower stuff and headed out to the bathroom. After getting herself presentable, and dealing with the 'ick' factor of discovering vampire dust in her hair, she came back to find Willow rummaging through her shoes.

When Buffy loudly cleared her throat, Willow looked up with a grin. "I was trying to find you some shoes. I was thinking something with a chunky heel, but summery. Ooh, cork-heel!" Willow held up Buffy's cork heels with the ankle strap as if she was Indiana Jones discovering an ancient artifact. "This will do."

"Once again, I must ask where you suddenly got the fashion sense. Didn't this used to go the other way around?" Buffy eyed her friend quizzically.

"Ok, I admit it. I started reading Cosmo in high school. A girl's gotta get her facts from somewhere, right?" Willow giggled, looking a little sheepish. "I know I said that maybe it was innate girl knowledge, but apparently I was born without that gene. I have to learn all of mine."

Buffy smiled and rolled her eyes. "Alright, your secret is safe with me." She unwrapped her hair from the towel on her head. "So, do you really think that this is a good idea? I mean, yeah, I have recently been converted to the Giles is Hot fan club, but is this really a good idea? Me and Giles? Slayer and Watcher, together?" Buffy sat down on her bed, still wrapped up in the other towel.

Willow sat down beside her, the cork-shoes still in her hands. "I think it's a great idea, actually. The both of you deserve to be happy. You make each other happy. I've seen how you two look at each other when you think that no one else is looking. You're made for each other." She smirked a little. "Besides, in high school, I took plenty of peeks at some older Watcher's diaries, and it seems that it happened more often than it didn't."

Buffy gasped, not needed to ask just exactly what that 'it' was. "Are you serious?" Willow nodded, and Buffy squealed. "No wonder he wouldn't let us read those things!"

"Well, I'm sure that there were other reasons, but that was more than likely one of the reasons. Think of it this way, though. Usually, according to those diaries, Watcher's and Slayers lived together, either as a guardian/ward relationship or…as whatever. In some of the older ones, they usually married the Slayer off to the Watcher so that people wouldn't ask too many questions, but that was like, way long ago in the middle ages. Still, when two people are spending so much time together, sparkage is bound to happen." Willow was practically a little Giles with her sometimes long-winded explanations, at least in Buffy's opinion.

"Okay, it's a little weird to marry a young teenager off to a Watcher, but even that I can buy for the period. Didn't they like to marry girls off at like, thirteen?" For Buffy to think of anyone being married at thirteen was a little on the icky side, but that was apparently how things were done back then, at least according to her World History class.

Willow nodded. "Yeah, they usually did. Luckily, we've grown as a species since then." She smiled. "Like how being gay is more okay now, which I am all for."

"Of course," Buffy said, smiling back at her. "Well, now all I've got to do is get ready."

"Did Giles say where he was taking you?" Willow asked.

"No, he said that it was going to be a surprise." Buffy couldn't wait to see what Giles had up his sleeve. "I just know that he's going to be picking me up here at seven."

"And you get to ride around in the new hot convertible car! How awesome is that?"

__

Buffy walked outside at six fifty-five, ready for her date with Giles. He pulled up at seven o'clock on the dot, and Buffy hopped into his car. "You look lovely tonight," Giles told her with a shy smile.

Willow had obviously made the right choice with the dress. "Thanks," Buffy said with a grin. Willow was definitely getting a big present after tonight for picking out this dress. "So, where are we heading tonight?"

"It's supposed to be a surprise," Giles said, taking the car out of park and driving away from Buffy's dorm. "It wouldn't exactly be a surprise if I told you now, would it?"

Buffy considered pouting, knowing that it usually helped her to get her way, but she figured that they would be there soon enough. "No, I guess that it wouldn't." She relaxed back into the car seat, intent upon waiting this out until they got there.

This lasted for exactly thirty seconds. "So, can I have a hint?" Buffy asked, smiling sweetly.

Giles didn't take his eyes off the road, but she saw him smile. "Good things come to those who wait."

"You're enjoying making me wait, aren't you?" Buffy asked him, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling back at him. He looked so handsome when he smiled.

"Immensely," he retorted. Buffy scoffed at him, but laughed just the same. "Alright, I'll give you one hint. What's your favorite food?"

Buffy thought for a second. She had never said what her favorite food was. Even though she was skinny, she loved all food on principle that it all tasted good to her. Then it hit her in the head: she had proclaimed her love of Japanese food once when Willow brought over some sushi to the library in high school. "You found a Japanese restaurant?"

"You would be amazed at how many different places there are to eat here in Sunnydale," Giles told her.

Even though he had now told her what type of food they would be eating, Buffy still had a lot to be amazed by. First off, that Sunnydale had its own Japanese restaurant. Secondly, that Giles would even eat sushi, much less take her out to a restaurant. "I'm surprised that you even like sushi. Most people are icked out by the thought of raw fish."

"Not all sushi is made of raw fish, Buffy. There are many different types," Giles said. He made a turn and suddenly they were pulling up to a restaurant called 'Shoguns.' "Some of it is cooked. I happen to like sushi."

"Well, you really do learn something new every day," Buffy said. "I'd like to learn a lot more about you." Buffy had to admit that there was so much about Giles that she didn't know, but now she was very interested in learning.

Giles cleared his throat and, once they were parked, pulled off his glasses for a moment to polish them. Buffy had learned over the years that one reason he polished his glasses was a stalling tactic to figure out what to say next. She could see him blushing a little, too. She made him blush!

Giles slipped his glasses back on. "Well, shall we?"

"I'd love to," Buffy said, smiling at him. He got out of the car and, before she could open her own door, opened it up for her. Such a gentleman! This was beyond awesome.


End file.
